Photos: How Springsteen, McCartney and other aging rockers stay forever young

Juanita Ng, Vancouver Sun11.28.2012

Vancouver has had a number of acts come through of late whose onstage gymnastics would be impressive for people half their age. Here's how they're staying so fit.Ian Lindsay
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Bruce Springsteen, 63Fitness: The crazy, crowd-surfing Springsteen is practically a senior citizen, but his secret is his strict workout regimen that he’s followed for the last three decades. He lifts weights with a trainer, runs on the treadmill and, unlike many rock stars, has never done drugs. On Monday, he rocked hard for three-plus hours and showed no signs of fatigue by concert end. Amazingly, Springsteen will give the same high-intensity performance Wednesday in Portland, and then Oakland on Friday, as he continues his world tour that began in March.Ian Lindsay
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Diet: Springsteen, a one-time junk food junkie, is now mainly vegetarian, turning his life around in the late 1970s when one of his assistants began buying his groceries. These days, his dressing room food item requirements include fruit, soy milk and whey powder.Ian Lindsay
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Diet: The portion of his contract rider shown here is from 2002, obtained by The Smoking Gun.'
/ The Smoking Gun

Quote: “(Springsteen) has practically the same waist size as when I met him, when we were 15," singer Steve Van Zandt, 61, told the New Yorker.Ian Lindsay
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Paul McCartney, 70Fitness: Paul McCartney says he stays so fit by treating his gigs as gyms. “I’ve been having cardiovascular exercise for years but it’s on stage,” McCartney told the Daily Star. McCartney says that even he can’t believe he can still do a three-hour show – as he did Sunday in Vancouver – without feeling winded. “You assume you would be feeling it now but it's the opposite,” he says. Additionally, McCartney has done meditation since the 1960s.Mark Van Manen, PNG
/ Vancouver Sun

Diet: McCartney, a vegetarian, has a list of go-to foods that help him stay fit. “OK, so… olive oil, balsamic,” he told The Guardian. “There's this great hummus you only seem to be able to get here, ‘Amvrosia’ – Ambrosia with a v, I use that a lot. Lemon juice, salt, spinach leaves, rocket leaves, plum tomatoes. You see, it's getting good already.” And he loves steamed vegetables. “If I go on tour and eat a lot of restaurant or hotel food, I come back, and it's like, yeah, broccoli! So, if I'm cooking, I'll be steaming vegetables, making some nice salad, that kind of stuff.”Mark van Manen
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Anthony Kiedis, 50Fitness: The lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who recently played Vancouver, says he likes defying conventional notions of what it means to be in one’s 50s. His exercise regimen includes running and swimming: “I take my dog, Buster, and run in the Hollywood Hills. And I swim if I'm near a clean ocean or a pool that doesn't have chlorine.”Colleen De Neve
/ Calgary Herald

Diet: Kiedis is a vegetarian: “I start every day by drinking water, then an enzyme protein powdered thing and then a pot of green tea. I'm trying not to eat late at night; James Brown once said the secret to his success was not to eat after 6 p.m.”Colleen De Neve
/ Calgary Herald

Quote: Anthony Kiedis in 2004: “I spent most of my life looking for the quick fix and the deep kick. I shot drugs under freeway off-ramps with Mexican gang-bangers and in thousand-dollar-a-day hotel suites. Now I sip vitamin-infused water and seek out wild, as opposed to farm-raised, salmon.”(Getty Images)
/ (Getty Images)

Madonna, 54Fitness: Madonna, who made jaws drop with her onstage moves recently in a two-hour Vancouver performance, is a fan of the barre movement, a ballet-inspired workout that has elements of yoga and Pilates. But Madonna is also a firm believer in cross-training, and does dance workouts and regularly practices yoga.Gerry Kahrmann
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Bryan Adams, 53Fitness: The intensely private Adams has kept mum about his fitness regimen, but one can assume that in addition to any workouts he does, his show – 2 1/2 hours of hard rocking when he played Vancouver in June – helps keep him so trim.Arlen Redekop
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Diet: “I became a vegan for my health 20 years ago. I abide by the rule that if it looks like it's going to clog your system, it probably will,” Adams told the Guardian newspaper in 2008. “I start my day with fruit juice and a mixed fruit salad. Dinner is salads or, if I'm not on a raw-food diet, then pasta or something veggie that's cooked. If I'm in the studio then the food tends to be garbage for the most part, unless you're lucky enough to have it catered in. I have been known to bring avocados to the set with lemons.”Arlen Redekop
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Quote: Adams’ drinks of choice: “I don't really drink alcohol unless it's my birthday, when I've resorted to having a tequila shot or someone has opened a great bottle of wine. I really like virgin mojitos. When I come offstage, I'll drink green or herbal tea,” he told the Guardian.Arlen Redekop
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Related

Vancouver has had a number of acts come through of late whose onstage gymnastics would be impressive for people half their age. Think Bruce Springsteen crowd-surfing at age 63; 70-year-old Paul McCartney belting out hits for three hours with nary a break or even a drink of water; or 54-year-old Madonna singing and dancing for two-plus hours.

The rockers’ workouts vary, but their diets have one thing in common: They are all vegetarian or mainly vegetarian.

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Photos: How Springsteen, McCartney and other aging rockers stay forever young

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